Over the last few years, Microsoft has brought us technology that enabled us to continue business-as-usual throughout some of the most testing times for businesses. Microsoft continues to bring us technology that allows us to thrive in our day-to-day activities, Microsoft Inspire highlights what is next!
All the announcements from Microsoft Inspire are designed with customers at the centre with solutions to help them enhance their organisations and transform the way they work, as well as maintain security across the cloud, emphasising the next evolution of digital transformation, which is the digital imperative, embracing hybrid-working.
What is Microsoft Inspire?
Microsoft Inspire is an annual event held for Microsoft partners worldwide, highlighting Microsoft's latest in technology innovation and how this can amplify our organisations.
Microsoft Inspire 2022 took place last week, with several key announcements including a new contact centre platform, many updates to Teams and Viva, plus much more.
We have summarised these announcements and how they can benefit our organisations.
How does this benefit our customers?
As a Microsoft Gold Partner and Tier 1 Cloud Solutions Provider, we consistently demonstrate the highest quality cloud services across a range of organisations, finding tailored solutions that benefit each of our customers in a way that best suits them. This includes Modern Workplace, Azure, Telephony, security in the cloud, Dynamics, and everything in between and beyond.
We’re true cloud experts who believe technology can make life better for everyone. Our focus is to understand your organisation’s needs and work together to create your organisation the best solution. We find the technology to fit the problem, never the other way round. So, we’ll only ever offer you what you actually need. We go beyond technology and take the time to understand your organisation, culture, processes, and aspirations to make sure your investment in Microsoft 365 results in the digital transformation you’re aiming for.
What were the key takeaways?
- Making Hyrbid Work, Work - Microsoft Teams updates
- Digital Contact Centre Platform
- Viva Engage
- Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty
The latest Microsoft Teams updates
One of the most exciting takeaways from this year's Inspire was the number of updates coming to Microsoft Teams, we have highlighted a number of them below.
Better collaboration in Teams Meetings
- Excel Live enhances the way we can collaborate in Microsoft Teams meetings, this update allows everyone in the meeting access to edit the workbook in real-time, within the meeting. Excel Live also supports Sheet Views, which means anyone co-editing the workbook can sort or filter however they need, without disrupting others. This will be available for public preview next month.
- Collaborative Annotations let meeting participants draw, type, or react on top of the content being shared in the meeting using a rich toolset powered by Microsoft Whiteboard.
Improvements to Microsoft Teams Rooms and devices
- Microsoft continues to expand their portfolio of Teams displays for building out home offices and flexible workspaces in the office. With more of us returning to the office but still having to take part in online meetings, this is super important. Find out more using the link below.
Enhanced webinar experience
- Last May, Microsoft introduced webinars in Microsoft Teams to drive more interactive and immersive experiences and nurture relationships. While webinars are a cost-effective tool to engage in two-way conversations, saving time in the setup and streamlining the process are equally as critical. There are a number of ways that Microsoft have developed their webinar experience, including:
- Presenter bios - allow the presenter(s) to stand out by attaching a headshot, company name, job title, LinkedIn profile, and more
- Theming - showcase your brand and align the theme of your event with a banner, logo, and relevant colour scheme
- Capacity limits: Set a specific limit for the number of attendees who can register
- Custom questions: Gather information from attendees with more pre-set custom questions including the option to include consent for event-specific terms and conditions
These capabilities will be available in public preview next month.
Digital Contact Centre Platform
Building a better customer service experience is a top priority for all of us.
The new Digital Contact Centre Platform brings together several Microsoft products, including Nuance, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Microsoft Teams, into a collaborative platform that helps create a seamless experience for users who need assistance.
The platform can be used to build contact centre experiences that provide the ultimate customer service experience. From smarter chatbots to faster live chat boxes, to intuitive AI solutions.
The goal is to create more personalised engagements across digital channels, where customers don’t have to repeat information and businesses can work to develop deeper relationships with their customers and reduce costs.
Viva Engage - Employee experience
Following the pandemic, many organisations have opted for a hybrid workplace strategy. Following this, Microsoft has been working to understand the new patterns of work driving the future, including enabling hybrid work, improving collaborative experiences, and building a digital employee experience.
New capabilities in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams let people contribute whenever and wherever they are working. Excel Live enables people to work collaboratively on workbooks directly within the Teams meeting window. Collaborative annotations give participants the ability to draw, type or react to shared meeting content via Microsoft Whiteboard.
Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform that uses a variety of tools to increase productivity, well-being, and collaboration at work. The new Viva Engage app allows organisations to build a strong community within their organisation and provides employees with personal expression tools, such as the ability to create and share video posts through the new Stories feature, creating a social hub for our people to be a part of, which is great now that we may not see our colleagues face-to-face as much as before.
Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty
Governments and public sector customers around the world are looking to accelerate their digital transformation. Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty is a new solution that will enable public sector customers to build and digitally transform workloads in the Microsoft Cloud while meeting their compliance, security, and policy requirements.
Today, public sector customers can take full advantage of Microsoft Cloud, including broad platform capabilities, resiliency, agility, and security. With the addition of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, they will have greater control over their data and increased transparency to the operational and governance processes of the cloud.
